Jim McCluney, CEO, Emulex

"We're still out there looking for companies that have good technology that can propel us to our billion-dollar goal."

Former Vixel CEO Jim McCluney took the reins of Emulex in September, and within less than two months had outlined a new strategy for the firm. (See McCluney Takes Reins and Emulex Claims HBA Spot.) The exec is now re-focusing the HBA vendor's energies on host server products, embedded storage, and networking. (See Emulex 'Re-Positions'.)

Initially, at least, this strategy appears to be working. "We needed to get into some customers that hadnt bought from us before, and we did that," McCluney told Byte & Switch.

The vendor has also been busy with M&A, buying Sierra Logic, which makes Fibre Channel-to-SATA bridge routers, for $180 million, and also grabbing chip virtualization specialist Aarohi for an undisclosed fee back in April. (See Emulex Gets Sierra Logic and Storage Do-Si-Do.)

Our latest survey shows growing demand, fixed budgets, and good reason why resellers and vendors must fight to remain relevant. One thing's for sure: The data center is poised for a wild ride, and no one wants to be left behind.